For self defence, you can buy a 3 sided socket wrench from bike shops. I have one I bought years ago from Halfords-fits nicely in my hand with the
centre socket protruding between my middle fingers and the sides either side of my fist-plus, its a socket wrench so always handy.

You could make a small drawstring bag for keeping your coinage in. If good enough with basic sewing skills, you could make it yourself with something
sturdy like heavy denim and a bit of paracord. Not much more dangerous than any other coin purse, until you loop a spare length of paracord through
the drawstring part. A pounds worth of pennies swung on an arm-length and wielded at an arm-length probably wouldn't be too pleasant on the recieving
end.

And if you need an excuse with any authority figures, just claim you gave him your money like he was asking.

Yes it against the law to carry anything if you intend to use it as a weapon. However there are a lot of items which could be pressed into service if
needed. The monkey fist type momentum weapons are all good ideas, especially the ones which can be quickly and easily taken apart into their innocent
components.

I like to carry a sharpie marker pen as at a last resort it can be clutched in a fist and can deliver a sharp impact at its point. It draws absolutely
zero attention.

If you're looking at just a bag to get you home in case of emergencies then I'd be tempted to travel light. You don't need food, or mess tins or
much of anything if your aim is just something to get you home. You can go for 24 hours without food if it's an emergency. Maybe just some high
energy foods like chocolate bars or flapjacks depending on what you like for energy. Traveling light and fast would be a priority for me, so I
wouldn't want to be stopping to cook.

Similarly I wouldn't go overboard with water. Maybe just one small bottle plus a filter and some water purification tablets. In the UK the one thing
we will never be short of is water. If you run dry you will be able to find some water somewhere, and a filter and purification tablets will let you
purify it on the move. A good option is one of the small drinking straw type filters, that you can use as a straw or attach to the mouth of a
bottle.

...sole purpose of course for lighting a fire in an emergency, but held in the hand and sticking out from the little finger end a hammer style punch
will ruin any arm or shoulder, or anything else you may need to do while using reasonable force to defend yourself or others. Incidental weapons can
be considered reasonable depending on use, and my firesteel would be incidental as I only carry it in case I ever need to make an emergency fire.
I've been arrested 3 times with that on my bunch of keys (released without charges I must add) and had it back no problem, and it lives in my
trousers pocket.
Devon and Cornwall police area so make your own choices, our cops are chilled/laid back and rely more on us all policing ourselves in what is
the biggest geographical police area of England.

Seen a few threads like this now and to be fair, most of the ideas will work to some degree.

But its one thing to give it 'Bruce Lee' with a loaded sock, shouting "you want some then..eh?...do yah!"
But quite another to actually hit someone with any degree of commitment, should the need arise.
Those with martial arts training will know that the hardest thing to learn is that you CAN actually twat someone across the nut, smack them in the
throat, or shove his nose back into his head with little effort.

originally posted by: Maxatoria
Carry a walking stick with you perhaps as they say "speak quiety and carry a big stick"

Would've given same advice on walking stick. As for personal carry, a zippo lighter cos you never know when you need fire fast unlike firesteel. A UK
legal multi tool with serrated knife for emergency cutting, mini torch for night or signaling, loud whistle for alarm or signaling, and good weather
proof jacket.

Above all by being calm and prepared mentally is key to success in any tough situations.

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
Ok guys I am a total amature at this sort of stuff but I could do with some advice.

To give you a bit of background, I travel around the city quite a lot, I travel on the bus daily, I walk every where and so on, very often then I find
myself in public in situations where i think "dam I wish i had that on me......" for example dam i wish i had a rain coat with me or a little extra
charge for my phone, a fist aid kit and so on.

So I have been thinking about this this for a little while and I have decided to put together a bag of stuff that could come in handy, not quite a Bug
out bag more of a Every day care (EDC) bag but with some survival gear as well. So I have a decent bag firstly, I have put a first aid kit in it, I
have also put together a electronics bag and another bag that has that dam rain coat in it as well as some other stuff. I carry around a back pack
every day, and I think its about time I actually had contents that I use some of that empty and not just have it to save me 5p for a plastic bag at
the shops.

But I need advice on the "prepper-stuff", I am by no means thinking a 72 hour bag because with having to carry some stuff for work so that is just
not going to happen. I am more looking the kind of stuff i might need should the bus brake down and I am stranded (happened to me a few times) in the
middle of the country side so I could get myself either home to to some kind of shelter.

I also need some advice on personal defence stuff, I am able to take care of myself and I think that if i did need to resort to using some kind of
weapon then the proverbial really would have it the fan pretty hard so there might not be much help having a weapon, but all the same i would like
some peace of mind. My brother was mugged a few months ago and I would just like some limited protection even just as a deterrent. Nothing lethal.

The problem though seems to be that if you read between the lines under UK law it seems like having something on you for personal protection indicates
intent and as such if i were to use it i could be committing a criminal act. Additionally having almost any kind of pointed object now also seems to
be a crime (apparently its not even possible to carry around a every day multi-tool unless i can prove I need on).

Anyway just some general advice on these points would good.

Thanks.

EDIT: Any advice on any other kind of gear you guys think i should have would be really good to, just remember I am not going to be wanting to take a
tent with me every time i leave the house

Bumping up this thread as I found it interesting and it correlates to the thread I made today about emergency bug out bags. To the original OP have
you considered a personal alarm? It screetches very loudly and you can use it right in front of an attacker and will temporarily disorientate the
attacker due to the noise. You can then use self defence by adding in a good kick to down below where the sun does not shine!! Mind you if the
attacker was a woman that would not work, so perhaps a squirt of pepper spray might do the trick there.

For an every day commute bag I could do with thinking about that myself. I already have a torch in my bag. And I plan to add an emergency personal
first aid kit, but I may well add simple things like foil warmers and little things like that. It would compliment my bug out bag. Mind you, one thing
about my bug out bag...it has a pocket for my ipod and headphones. The thought of listening to Coldplay's Fix You whilst the world around you is in
chaos was grimly amusing!

Water
Oat/energy bars
map/compass
survival bag (high vis version of the foil blankets with survival instructions on, plus works as a liner to waterproof your kit)
whistle
Small pair of binoculars.
Condoms
Tampons
First aid including any medication
Waterproof/windproof
multi tool
torch

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